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Adult film productions across Los Angeles have been forced to shut down temporarily as a result of a performer testing positive for HIV.

“Until we know for sure, we’ve asked the industry to have a moratorium on production,” said Diane Duke, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, a Canoga Park-based porn industry trade group.

Duke’s group became aware of the possible HIV case Saturday, according to a statement released to porn industry media. Duke would not say how her group learned about the possible HIV case.

She said she notified adult film production companies across the San Fernando Valley on Monday morning that a performer had tested positive and urged them to temporarily halt productions until further tests were completed.

Duke said company officials she spoke with — including those at well-known studios, such as Hustler and Evil Angel — agreed to the temporary shutdown.

Duke said she could not release the performer’s name, age or gender. Further testing will likely be completed within a week, she added.

Her group will notify performers who had sex with the potentially infected person so they can get tested.”

“Last month, Duke’s group launched a new testing database for porn performers, the Adult Performer Health and Safety Services, designed to provide producers and agents with access to results from numerous testing centers.

Duke said it will be at least another month before testing is complete and the database is fully functional.

Adult film performers must be tested every 30 days and show proof of a clean test before they perform, according to voluntary industry standards.”

Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said the latest possible HIV infection showed an “outrageous disregard for the health and safety of performers and the community at large” and demonstrates why testing is not an adequate substitute for condoms. He called on L.A. city officials to pull all adult film permits until condoms are mandated.

“How many performers must become infected with HIV and other serious STDs before the industry will clean up its act and government will do the right thing?” he said.

Mama I (love) sue you, Mama I care

Even though in the states you can sue almost anyone, it doesn’t mean you’ll win. A lawsuit against a mother, filed by her two grown children, was dismissed in the state of Illinois, a lawsuit that can be deemed rather laughable!

Children aged 23 and 20, sued their mother on accounts of ‘bad-mothering’ and this petty yet long legal battle was settled two years later, having started in 2009. According to the Huffington post, some of the reasons Kimberley Garrity was being sued are as follows;

…Birthdays and holidays when she sent a greeting card without presents, her insistence that her daughter return the car she had loaned her by midnight after her homecoming dance and changing her name after her second marriage which “caused attention” for her daughter at school events, the Daily Herald reports.

The suit, originally dismissed by Cook County Judge Kathy Flanagan who called the siblings’ allegations “petty grievances” according to theToronto Sun, sought more than $50,000 in damages for emotional distress and cited issues like curfew enforcement, insufficient college care packages and haggling over homecoming dress budgets as sources of undue suffering.

The children were represented by three lawyers, including Steven A. Miner, their father and Garrity’s ex-husband as of 1995.

(Miner)… compared the suit to medical malpractice and objected to Flanagan’s statements that they were suing Garrity for “bad mothering,” according to theChicago Tribune. The children “do not view their (lawsuit) as an attack on mothering, but rather on accountability,” he wrote. “Everyone makes mistakes, but … there must be accountability for actions. Parenting is no different.”

The case’s dismissal was attributed in part to the legal ramifications of establishing a precedent allowing retributive actions for parenting style that doesn’t constitute abuse. Justice Joseph Gordon said that Garrity’s actions fall far short of the legal standards of intentional infliction of emotional distress, according to the Daily Herald.

At its worst, [Garrity’s conduct] reflects behavior that is sometimes erratic, sometimes spiteful, sometimes less than generous or fully sensitive to the material and emotional needs of her children,” Gordon wrote in his 33-page ruling, according to the Daily Herald. “But by no means does the nature and quality of this conduct fall outside ‘all possible bounds of decency.’”

Soccer No Homo

Philipp Lahm, a Germany captain wrote in his autobiography, “A Subtle Difference” that he advises gay soccer players not to come out, for it could cause grave repercussions.

“I would fear that he could end up like Justin Fashanu who after he outed himself was driven into such a corner that he ended up committing suicide,” the 27-year-old Bayern Munich captain added.

Lahm said, however, that he personally would have no problems if a player decided to come out.

“I have nothing against homosexuals and I do not consider homosexuality as something reprehensible,” he said.

Fashanu is the only player to have announced he was homosexual during his professional career.

He played for several clubs, including Norwich City, Nottingham Forest and Manchester City, and, after abuse from the terraces, killed himself in 1998 aged 37.

A study of football professionals, coaches and referees conducted in Britain last year showed there was still a culture of secrecy surrounding gay players with more than one in four people polled saying they knew homosexual soccer players.”

Some parents love their gay babies… and some don’t but PFLAG loves us all cause we were born this way.

PFLAG Canada, as well as providing free hugs on Pride, supports the homogays in more ways than you can imagine. A recently launched awareness campaign consists of 14 personal stories of gay, lesbian, and transgender beings as well as allies of the community. I just spent too much time watching every video but it’s so worth it, you should too! Here are at least two, and you can find the rest on the campaign website. (http://stories.pflagcanada.ca/)

Oh Bananas, Obama!

Obama’s uncle Onyango Obama, aged 67 is being held without bail on a detainer from U.S Customs and Immigration enforcement, while his immigration status is undetermined. The reason for all of this? Looks like Uncle Obama pulled a Lohan. Onyango was pulled over in Framingham on suspicion of drunken driving last Wednesday.

When asked if he wanted to make a call to arrange bail, Obama said, “I think I’ll call the White House,” according to the police report filed in Framingham District Court.

Obama is the half-brother of the president’s late father and the brother of another of the president’s relatives, Zeituni Onyango, of Boston, who won the right to stay in the U.S. last year after being denied asylum in 2004. She had been in the country illegally since 2000 but a judge said her connection to the president could make her a target if she were forced to return to Kenya.

His immigration status could not immediately be confirmed and both ICE and the White House declined comment on the case.

Obama’s arrest has raised questions about how he could have both a driver’s license and a Social Security number.

99 arrests and a lesson learnt, it aint.

Because I love to inform y’all of the crooks of the day, I figured how could I not introduce you to this fine man here. Aged 37, Albert Luis Alvarez faces 18 months of time thanks to his good Samaritan behavior. A few weeks ago, Chicago police received a phone call about a suspicious looking man wandering the neighborhood begging for money. Aside from the fact that he had been arrested a previous 99 times, it gets worse with the fact that not only was he in company of his three year old daughter at the time of the arrest, but she was in fact being used as an accessory in his ploy to rip people off money.

“When police found Alvarez, he allegedly threw several bags of drugs on the ground before police found more heroin in his pockets. He was allegedly telling residents that he was injured and needed money for his young daughter, who was ultimately turned over to a family member, Fox Chicago reports.

When police took him to the station, they realized he had 98 prior arrests and 23 convictions, CBS Chicago reports. He has been convicted of burglary, robbery, larceny, assault, drugs and smuggling. He also gave various police departments 10 dates of birth, nine names and five Social Security numbers used as aliases.”

When are people going to realize that social aid service is a thing and exists for a reason?

About the Author

Nikki

|Montreal/Guelph Contributor| You'll find me rambling, ranting and raving about everything; from feminism and religion to relationships and fashion. I'm an avid procrastinator and full-time perfectionist. I have an obsession with semi-colons and use them irrationally. I love books, reading stuff on the internet, and writing everything down. Winter makes me cry and I always crave chocolate and the sun.

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